City News Service - ACLJ Files Brief Asking CA Supreme Court to Deny Review of Appeal in Mt. Soledad Case

February 2, 2007

A Washington, D.C.-based legal group filed a friend of the court brief today asking the California Supreme Court to to deny a review of an appeals court ruling declaring a ballot proposition on the Mount Soledad cross constitutional.

"The petition for review should be denied because the clear purpose and effect of Proposition A is to preserve a historically significant war memorial, not to proselytize a particular religious viewpoint or coerce any religious activity," the brief from the American Center for Law and Justice concluded.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett had ruled in 2005 that Proposition A -- which allowed the city of San Diego to transfer the 29-foot cross and surrounding walls and plaques to the National Park Service so it could be designated a national war memorial -- was invalid and unenforceable. That ruling was reversed by a 4th District Court of Appeal panel.

A center official said more than 170,000 people -- including more than 27,000 Californians -- have signed its petition to preserve the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial.

Vietnam veteran Phillip Paulson sued the city of San Diego in 1989 to try to force the removal of the cross, contending that having the Christian symbol on city-owned land represented unconstitutional preference for religion under state law.

In 1991, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. ruled in Paulson's favor.

A series of appeals followed, but the decision was upheld. Last May, Thompson gave the city 90 days to comply with his order or face a fine of $5,000 per day.

Thompson's ruling was put on hold by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and is now before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Paulson died Oct. 25 of liver cancer but added a friend, Steven Trunk, to the lawsuit so it could continue.

President Bush signed a bill last summer transferring ownership of the cross and the land it sits on to the Department of Defense.

The center focuses on constitutional law cases, focusing on national security, family and abortion-related issues.